The open source plan

So HP is going to open source webOS. What does that mean, and how do they do that? We spoke with HP on this matter and here’s what they had to say.

HP intends to fully open source every component of webOS, right down to its Linux core. They aren’t ready to give a public timeframe for exactly when that open sourcing will happen, because there’s some work that has to be done first. HP noted that there are some proprietary parts of webOS that have been licensed from other entities. Obviously HP cannot go an open source somebody else’s work, so they’ll have to replace those bits with open source components (whether that means they’ll source them from the open source community or create in-house, we don’t yet know).

As for the plan, HP intends to release webOS to the open source community in segments, starting with Enyo in “the near future,” followed by the other parts of webOS. Fear not, for there will be a roadmap published for their open sourcing plans. There are still plenty of details to work out (governance structures and the like), but it's happening.